Decarbonize now or end up as losers: MSCI CEO cautions firms

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Editor's note: As the world grapples with climate change, businesses are set for a major transformation. Some companies would need to find new business areas (for instance, automakers’ move into electric vehicles). Others would have to deal with the looming physical dangers of climate change to their operations and assets. Most of all, it’s imperative that companies reduce their carbon footprint to attract sustainability-linked investments. So, what is at stake for businesses?  Companies need to move fast—and early—to measure their carbon footprint and decarbonize their operations, or else they will lose their competitive advantage, their cost of capital will go up and they will end up as “losers”, MSCI chairman and CEO Henry Fernandez told The Morning Context in an interview on the sidelines of the UN climate conference (COP27) at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. The New York-based global index provider’s 160,000-plus indices of stocks and other financial instruments are used as benchmarks for global investments worth $13.5 trillion. With passive index-based investing on the rise, the company’s index selection directly influences investment flows to firms. MSCI is already working with institutional …